It's Your Reunion Year

MEMORANDUM

DATE: April16, 2015

FROM: Bill deGolian '79

SUBJECT: UGA Law School Reunions

Recently, the Georgia Law School Class of 1979 had a 35^th Reunion Dinner at the Graduate Athens Hotel - Outdoor Pavilion. It was scheduled in conjunction with the Georgia Law School's first Alumni Weekend, Saturday, March 21, 2015. 56 classmates attended, and with spouses and friends, we had about 95 in total. We were honored to have Dean Bo Rutledge join us.

Given Professor Paul Kurtz's close relationship with our Class, we invited him to attend. We voted at the dinner to make he and his wife Carol honorary members of the Class of 1979.

While in years past, we have had Class reunions, they have been held during University of Georgia Football Homecoming weekends in the fall. With so much of the focus on football at that time of year, these reunions did not draw well. Plus, it was hard to find hotel rooms and meeting places.

Unquestionably, Law School Class Reunions should be scheduled to coincide with Alumni Weekends in the future. It is a good excuse to return to the Law School and to gather with old friends from Law School days.

Attached (click top image on right) is the blast email I sent in early January 2015 to the Class of 1979. Kate O'Reilly of the Law School provided me with a list of emails for my classmates.

I asked for classmate's thoughts whether they would be interested in a reunion dinner. Within the next few days, I received about 40 email replies, all in favor of the idea.

From that point forward we coordinated with Kate. Mike Sheahan of our Class made a trip to Athens scouting potential venues. Kate has a lot of information on this. He settled on the Graduate Athens Hotel, which has an outdoor pavilion ideal for a dinner party. Many classmates booked rooms there for the evening.

We subsequently sent out a save the date announcement of the reunion dinner. Kate prepared the invitation, a copy of which is attached (click image on right). All of this was done by email.

The Reunion was just a fun evening. There was no agenda other than old friends getting together and visiting. We charged $75.00 a head for a nice dinner with hors d'oeuvres and an open bar with beer and wine. We had a cash bar for mixed drinks. As it turned out, with incidental charges, it came to about $76.00 a person - the Law School covered the balance. Kate served as our central contact point where classmates could make reservations and pay in advance. It was painless for us. She coordinated with the hotel and handled payment to it.

Kate pulled the old Phi Alpha Delta directory from our law school days. She was able to list current names, mailing and email addresses and telephone numbers next to our face shots from those long ago days. Some of those old pictures are a hoot!

Rick Shackelford '79 and his wife Honey have a condominium in Athens and hosted an after party there that drew a substantial number of classmates.

In the course of the Reunion, we were able to update addresses and telephone numbers for everyone in the class. The benefits are many to the Law School and to us in reconnecting.

Putting this Reunion together was not difficult at all. It more was just a matter of getting the process started. Once I floated the idea in January, it just took off. Kate and her staff at the Law School did the heavy lifting.

Bill deGolian '79